Finnish police investigators arrive in Rwanda to investigate genocide charges

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"Here was a roadblock, and at that intersection many people were killed in April 1994. The bodies were thrown from the bridge down to the street", says Gustave, our 24-year-old guide in Kigali, when our car descends to the district of Kinamba in the city.
      Gustave was 11 years old when about 800,000 people were killed in a period of three months in the Rwanda genocide.
     
The two first members of a group of investigators from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation arrived in Kigali on Tuesday.
      The NBI is investigating the possible participation of a man who has lived in Finland since 2003 in the killings in the south of Rwanda in April 1994.
      The Hutu man is suspected of having been a local organiser of the genocide in the village of Nyakizu, where hard-line Hutus killed thousands of people within ten days - mainly members of the Tutsi tribe. There are eyewitness accounts recorded against the man in reports of Human Rights Watch, and Africa Rights.
     
The NBI is in Rwanda for a second time. The first time they visited Nyakizu already in March, but the actual investigation is not beginning until next week, when the head of the investigation, Thomas Elfgren, arrives in Kigali.
      Later a team from the NBI technical department will also arrive on the spot. The aim is to carry out technical investigations and to interview witnesses of the genocide.
     
Gustave notes that the Rwandan capital has changed considerably in the past 13 years.
      Now Kigali has recovered enough that modern office buildings are going up again in a couple of blocks in the business district, and there is life and colour on the streets, as Rwanda - a small country of nine million inhabitants - has a very high population density.
      Still, the city, which spreads over green hills and a valley, mainly comprises buildings of one or two stories.
     
The case of the man remanded in custody in the Finnish city of Porvoo in April is being investigated by the Finnish NBI because the UN international tribunal investigating the Rwandan genocide is not handling any new cases. The challenge is a considerable one for the Finns, as this is the first time that Finnish authorities have to deal with a case involving genocide.
      If charges are filed, the case will probably go to trial in Finland. "In theory, if charges are filed, one option is to bring the witnesses from here to trial in Finland. The basic principle is that those who are heard as witnesses must be personally on the spot", says Elfgren, who is still in Finland for the time being. He arrives in Kigali on Saturday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  COMMENTARY: Rwanda genocide case tests international reach of Finnish law (17.4.2007)
  On the trail of a genocide (17.4.2007)
  Finland holds Rwandan man suspected of involvement in genocide (10.4.2007)

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